Robert A. Boonin is a member of the national law firm of Dykema Gossett and is based in its Ann Arbor office. Rob is an honors graduate from The University of Michigan Law School, holds a Masters in Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State University, and a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.  Practicing law for nearly 40 years, Rob has litigated employment law matters before federal and state courts across the nation, handles all forms of union matters for employers, and regularly counsels clients on such issues as discrimination, FMLA compliance, and wage and hour law. 

Rob is a recognized leader in his field.  For instance, he is: on the Chambers USA list of top employment law attorneys; listed as a Best Lawyer in Employment Law; repeatedly recognized as one of Michigan’s “Super Lawyers”; a Fellow and a Past-President of the Litigation Counsel of America; a Past Chair of  the national Wage and Hour Defense Institute; a Past Chair of the Michigan Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section; and a Fellow of the distinguished American College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.  Rob also in an immediate past-chair of the American Bar Association’s Federal Labor Standards Legislation Committee (which covers FLSA matters), and serves as an Editor of the most recognized authority on the FLSA, the Bloomberg BNA legal treatise – The Fair Labor Standards Act.

 

Sheldon Blumling is a Partner in the Irvine, California office of Fisher & Phillips LLP, a national labor and employment law firm. He is a member of the firm’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice Group. He advises clients with respect to all aspects of employee benefits and executive compensation, including retirement plans, health and welfare benefit plans and equity-based compensation plans.

Follow Sheldon on Twitter  @labor_attorneys.

Joseph (“Joe”) Beachboard is a nationally recognized employment lawyer who also closely tracks the most important developments at the U.S. Supreme Court impacting the business community. He has more than 30 years of experience representing management in a wide variety of employment and labor matters in perhaps the most challenging state in the nation for employers – California.  Mr. Beachboard speaks regularly before human resource and employer groups on cutting edge employment law topics.  He is a member of SHRM and has been an annual presenter at both the SHRM Annual Conference and the Employment Law and Compliance Conference for two decades.  Mr. Beachboard is frequently quoted in such leading publications as HR Magazine, National Law Journal, Los Angeles Times, NY Times, HR Executive and Workforce, and has been published in dozens of legal and business journals. Throughout his career in Los Angeles, Mr. Beachboard has represented dozens of studios and entertainment properties.  He cites his most interesting project as working with the cast and crew of the television show The Office, from its pilot through the final season.

 

 

Shanti has been an innovator in the legal training industry for more than a decade, designing powerful compliance solutions for employers that maximize legal defenses while creating a culture of ethics, inclusion and respect.

Under Shanti’s leadership, ELT has grown to become a dominant player in its field, now servicing more than 2,000 employers around the world, and training more than 5,000,000 employees. In addition to overseeing ELT’s product and business development, Shanti also advises ELT clients regarding strategic risk management initiatives and workplace compliance.

Sandy Asch is a TEDx Speaker, best-selling author, and resilience thought leader. Her book, ROAR, was named by Inc. magazine as one of the best business books written by a woman. Over the past 20 years, through keynote presentations and workshops, 45,000+ leaders in 50 countries and 6 languages have implemented Sandy’s ideas to navigate change, manage work-life balance and be more resilient - to ROAR with purpose and passion. 

 

As the founder and President of Strativity Group, Lior Arussy has had the privilege of assisting organizations in their customer centric transformation. He is the author of five books on customer experience, employee engagement and experience innovation. He has published over 100 articles including for the Harvard Business Review. He has won several awards for his thought leadership.

Rose Arant, SPHR, is the Leadership Training and Development Specialist for AIT Laboratories and has over 25 years of business, HR, and consulting experience. She has also held both full time and adjunct faculty positions teaching a variety of human resource and management courses at both the graduate and undergraduate level for adult students. Rose has also received awards for Innovative Excellence in Teaching and Learning, a President’s award for her positive impact on students, and Outstanding Faculty of the Year Awards. This year AIT was recognized as a Training Inc Top 125 training company. Rose is a member of SHRM and has held leadership and volunteer positions for her local and state chapters.

Dr. Kimberly Alyn is a human behavior expert, a best-selling author, and an international professional speaker. She is the author of eleven books including "Building Better Teams," "How to Inspire People to Achieve More," "How to Give a Butt Kicking Presentation," and "Discover Your Inner Strength" (with contributors Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard, and Brian Tracy). An advocate of life long learning, Dr. Alyn has her bachelors degree in business management, her masters degree in organizational management, and her doctorate degree in organizational management with a specialty in leadership. Dr. Alyn has over 20 years of experience with speaking, training, educating, and entertaining audiences.

Karl Ahlrichs specializes in helping professionals make order from chaos. He is a national speaker, author, and consultant, presenting on the people issues in all industries, and is often quoted in the local and national media. 

Karl’s experience is ideally suited to times of organizational change as he pulls on risk management and organizational development theories to replace “best practices” with “next practices”. He owes much of his communications mastery to working as a writer and editor in daily media, to on-the-job writing experience and to the process of becoming a published author.

He joined Gregory & Appel in 2010 after serving as a founding partner of ExactHire, bringing his HR, operations, diversity & belonging, and learning & development skills with him. Karl’s affinity for design, composition and learning started at a very young age, by taking and examining thousands of boring pictures with the goal of improving his craft. He loves deploying that practice-to-improve approach with all manner of hobbies including writing haiku, mastering cutting-edge technology and learning Spanish.

In 2003, he was named the SHRM Human Resource Professional of the Year for the State of Indiana. He is on the Boards of several organizations, including the Maryland CPA Society.  He has lived in Scotland and Spain and lives to explore new experiences with his wife and family.

 

Matt Adam serves as Chief Talent Strategist for NAS Recruitment Innovation, a leading Employment Branding & Recruitment Marketing firm. He has been an innovator and thought leader in the space for over 25 years. Today, his role is national in scope and designed to lead major account implementation and support strategic project consultation for many high-profile organizations.

With his finger on the pulse of the industry, Matt has shared knowledge on topics such as Employment Branding, Career Site Best Practices and The Future of Recruitment Marketing to audiences at SHRM, NAHCR, AAPPR, etc.

Matt has a Marketing Degree from Boston College and resides in Cincinnati, Ohio.